A father-son fishing trip to northern Canada paradise

I recently returned from my annual fishing trip to northern Canada. I’ve been fishing Canada for more than 60 years and fishing in the lake country of northern Canada has never disappointed.  

This trip was no different. The fishing was great and catching fish was even better.   

For the first time in my experience of freshwater fishing, I questioned whether I was strong enough to actually reel in the big lake trout hooked at the end of my fish line.  For those of you that regularly read my Flathead Outdoors column, you may remember that my annual Canadian fishing trip is usually in Northern Manitoba at Knee Lake where I have enjoyed world class walleye and northern pike fishing for many years. Catching 100 fish a day was the norm, with Northern Pike over 40 inches long. This year was somewhat different because I wanted to catch some lake trout, so my son, Erik, and I went to a resort in Northern Saskatchewan. 

This resort is located about 400 miles north of the U.S. border, virtually at the end of paved and gravel roads. From the small village of Missinipi, we flew by float plane to the Oliver Lake Wilderness lodge which is located on an island in Oliver Lake. I asked several folks about the size of Oliver Lake, but no one knew. I would estimate its size at about 50,000 to 100,000 acres. But what is most impressive about Oliver Lake is its endless array of bays, peninsulas, islands and channels to other lakes. Almost an endless array of almost untouched fish habitat.   

Whenever I fly in Northern Canada, I am always overwhelmed by their thousands of wild lakes and virtually no signs of human development. Saskatchewan boasts of having over 100,000 lakes. From our resort on Oliver Lake, there are no roads between this lake and the North Pole. True wilderness with hundreds or more likely thousands of lakes that have never been named or even fished. Truly, a fisherman’s paradise! 

After landing at the resort, we quickly unpacked, assembled our fishing tackle and were on the lake within an hour. Our guide was a young fellow named Casey. As the next few days would show us, he was an expert fisherman and great guide. He really knew the lake and where the trophy fish were located. I expected this would be a walleye and northern pike fishing trip with some lake trout fishing tossed in. It turned out to be mostly a lake trout fishing trip, with some walleye and northern pike fishing tossed in. We were the clients, so Casey would guide us to whatever fish species we wanted to catch. Casey referred to lake trout as lakers. 

Northern pike and walleyes lived in entirely different parts of the lake compared to lake trout. Walleyes and northern pike like warmer water and the shelter of weed beds, so we fished for them in more shallow water, 20 feet of depth or less, usually 10 foot depths or less. Lake trout like deep cool water. We fished for lakers in the middle of the lake, with 80-100 feet of water depth. Our fishing boat was an 18-foot aluminum open fishing boat with a 40 HP Yamaha motor. Once the motor was started in the morning, it ran all day, except for shutting it off during our one-hour shore lunch. We fished 8-9 hours each day. Let me tell you that after spending 8-9 hours bouncing around in a fishing boat all day, plus experiencing the sun and wind, then a good dinner at the resort lodge, we were ready for bed at 8:30 or 9p.m. each evening. 

On our first day we fished for walleyes, northerns and lake trout. That first day we caught our largest northern pike of the trip, a great 37-inch-long fish. A true trophy. The resort practices CPR for all fish caught. CPR stands for Catch, Photograph and Release. They also only use barbless hooks.  The only fish we kept was a small fish or two for our shore lunch. 

Lake trout were on the lake bottom, in 80-100 feet of depth. We used the guide’s stout rods for lake trout. The fishing reels were full of 50 pound test braided line. Our primary lake trout lure was a 2 ounce white lead-headed jig with a large red nose, multifiber white tails and a large single hook. To this jig, the guide would add a slice of natural bait of sucker skin and meat. We fished at deep depths where there is little or no natural light. So, the lake trout probably fed and hit your lure through smell and vibration. The guide used his fish finder to perfection. He would slowly cruise his known habitats for lakers until the fish finder showed fish on the bottom.  He then used the forward and reverse of motor to keep us over the fish. Due to the water depth, it wasn’t practical to deploy an anchor. Our Garmin fish finder showed our fish lines going down from the surface, to the bottom. We kept our lures just off the bottom, bouncing the lure off and on the bottom. The vibrations of our bouncing lures seemed to attract the trout.  

They would hit our lures with vengeance. When a fish struck our lure, we would set our hooks with a stout jerk. Then the fight was on! We caught 40-50 lakers every day. The smaller lakers were 20-22 inches long with the big ones up to 39 inches long. Those bigger fish probably weighed 25 pounds or more. I am including a photo of my son Erik and guide Casey (beaded guy) with a nice lake trout. 

Let me tell you that cranking up 20-30 pound hard fighting lake trout from 90 feet of depth is fun and work! No, it’s actually super fun! Even the smaller lakers put up a terrific fight. The lakers over 30 inches tested your strength and endurance.  When the big lakers wanted to run, they took line even with the reel drag set very tight. They fought every inch of the way to the surface. This was fresh-water fishing at its best.           

Overall, this was a great father-son fishing trip. The only small negative was the constant smokey skies caused by forest fires. The smokey skies didn’t bother me a bit. But if you had any respiratory ailments, the smoke might be a problem. The lodging was good and the food was great. The resort personnel were great and always helpful.   

The other negative of the trip is that it ended and I had to come home. As we drove back from Canada, I asked Erik, would you like to go back to Knee Lake in Manitoba or Oliver Lake in Saskatchewan ? Without hesitation, he said let’s go back to Oliver Lake!